


Gemini Rising: Resurrection

by dsa_archivist



Category: due South
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drama, M/M, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1999-05-14
Updated: 1999-05-14
Packaged: 2018-11-11 02:43:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11139549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dsa_archivist/pseuds/dsa_archivist
Summary: This story is a sequel toGemini Rising: Best Laid Plans.





	Gemini Rising: Resurrection

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Speranza, the archivist: this story was once archived at [Due South Archive](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Due_South_Archive). To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in June 2017. I tried to reach out to all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Due South Archive collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/duesoutharchive).

 

 

Gemini Rising 5

##  Gemini Rising V: Resurrection

by Red Skye   
  

This story is a sequel to Gemini Rising IV: Best Laid Plans   
Note: Where you see =Text bracketed in this way= it indicates a characters   
thoughts. 

   *=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=* 

 Ray watched the door of the chamber he was trapped in open and hastily   
tucked away his cel phone before the leather suited Doug appeared   
silhouetted in the light from the garage. A set of bicker leathers was   
thrown at him.   
 "Sorry about that."   
 "S'Ok," Ray said as sorted out the pants from the coat.   
 "It would seem we underestimated Alessandro."   
 "What I want to know is did anyone *see* him turned to ash or did the   
*word* get out that it happened."   
 "We'll soon know."   
 "He set us up, but good, that Sushi roll was meant for you."   
 "Judging from the way it left you gulping down milk it was never meant to   
kill, just to make it clear that he could have killed me at any time."   
 "He always was a sadistic bastard."   
 Doug squatted down with the biker boots he held to help Ray into the them   
as Ray tugged the coat on and zipped and buckled it up.   
 "This gear fits *perfectly*."   
 "I got it just for you.."   
 "Some people say it with flowers."   
 Doug chuckled.   
 Doug buckled the last of the buckles and rose, a pair of gloves coming   
from inside his coat. Ray took them pulling them on as Doug turned and   
walked into the bike shed. Ray followed and watched Doug straddle that   
powerful racing bike of his.   
 "Why is this gear so heavy?"   
 "It's lined with a layer of kevlar and titanium chain mail."   
 Ray let out a whistle.   
 "Which will stop just about any bullet they care to send our way. If there   
wasn't a risk of rattling I'd have it sewn into my Ninja suit."   
 Ray took the helmet that was tossed his way, turning it upside down and   
checked the straps as Doug pulled on his own.   
 "What about the bike?"   
 "The tires are solid, they can't blow them out, and after the prototype   
for it virtually disintegrated when it hit a wall at high speed, Donna had   
this one built tough. Bullet's would just bounce off just everything but   
the seat and tyres."   
 "I thought this was the prototype."   
 "No.. That was destroyed the first time it went on a race track."   
 Ray pulled the helmet on and as he did up the clip he started as a split   
screen view of what was in front and behind the bike appeared on the   
blacked out visor. The view's started rotating.   
 He pushed the visor up and looked at the back of the bike and moved to get   
a better look at it, that's when he noticed the lens hidden in the back of   
the seat.   
 "Neat trick. So how do I see with the visor down when I'm not on the   
bike?"   
 Doug's hand moved to the side of his visor and Ray copied his move and   
slid the visor back down and saw a view of what was directly in front of   
him. He stepped up and took a good look at the front of Doug's helmet,   
there above the visor, what he'd taken for a bit of decoration was a small   
lens.   
 "Get on."   
 Ray climbed onto the back of the bike and wrapped his arms around Doug's   
back. Doug's hand moved down and Ray looked around him to see him flip open   
the decorative panel that protected the bike's Speedometer and fuel gauge,   
and discovered it had been upgraded to something high tech with a key pad   
and few miscellaneous button's added. Doug touched one of them and tapped a   
code into the pad, then his helmet.   
 "There are a dozen car's out front, half a dozen more blocking ever road   
out of here."   
 "How???"   
 "I can tap into the building's security camera's. The bikes got a   
transceiver built in."   
 Ray fiddled with the helmet till he saw what Doug saw.   
 "Can you get past them."   
 The views on his visor shifted, then closed in on one of the side street   
blockades.   
 "Yes."   
 Then the view abruptly changed to that split screen front and back view   
he'd started out with and he felt the engine start. Doug gunned the bike   
and Ray wrapped his arms tight around him, and made sure his feet were   
securely in place.   
 He saw the door slide open and a startled uniformed and kevlar vested cop   
with a head set on spun around. Doug set the bike in motion and the cop 

jumped out of the way, going for his gun, no doubt screaming they're here   
or they're making a break. As the bike roared away Ray saw the door slide   
back into place as the cop had his back to it, raising his gun, bringing   
his arm up, taking aim. And ahead of them another cop was stepping into   
view bringing a gun up. Doug successfully swerved around him as both cops   
fired at once, and managed to hit each other and staggered back.   
 Doug's bike screamed through the garage and Ray closed his eyes not   
wanting to see what he knew Doug was about to do. He felt the bike move up   
a slant then they were flying through the air, to come down with a jolt.   
The bike tilted and all the old instincts Doug had drummed into his head   
came back to him as his leg went out in perfect sync with Doug's pushing   
the bike back up before it went into a skid, as Doug spun the bike around,   
then it tilted back and he brought his leg up, and chanced a peek, to see   
the view zooming in on that blockade, and jolt as Doug swerved at the next   
to last second and then they were hitting the pavement and tearing along   
it.   
 He saw cops spinning and swinging guns and cried out in pain, his hold on   
Doug tightening as he felt two bullets strike him in the back.   
 =G-d, that hurt=   
 "Hang on, Sunshine," Doug's voice said coming through loud and clear   
through speaker's no doubt hidden in the helmets lining.   
 "I am hanging on!"   
 "No need to yell."   
 The bike neared the corner and as the camera rotated he saw another   
blockade.   
 "It's a trap! Don't do it!"   
 Doug roared past the side street he'd been intending to move down and a   
bullet or two was sent his way. He felt Doug reacting to being hit by one,   
heard him grunt, then drowned out the sound crying out in pain again as he   
felt another bullet strike.   
 Cars screamed into the area blocking the road ahead and Ray heard Doug   
give a multilingual curse then his leg went out as they came in line with   
the mall where Doug did all his food shopping. The bike spun in a tight one   
eighty curve, then Doug speed straight at one of the plate glass windows   
that were set either side of its automatic doors.  =Nononononono \- not   
that= Ray's mind gibbered.   
 The glass shattered as Doug drove it right through it and then the bike   
was sliding on the highly polished terrazzo floor. His leg went out with   
Doug's to push it out of a skid, and back as Doug regained control and   
speed through the mall's wide main hall with a triumphant little laugh.   
 "You are insane!" Ray cried.   
 "Yes, perhaps, but there's a method to my madness, Amoroso."   
 The bike started to skid as he swung into a side corridor, and their legs   
went out to push it back up, then they were heading for the trolley ramp   
and speeding up it, with Doug taking every turn with a tight skid around,   
never once letting up. Ray almost screamed as one of those tight turns   
slammed his leg into the side of the ramp, then they were moving away and   
up the next level, and into the roof top garage over the mall.   
 The bike stopped with the engine still running and Ray panted trying to   
ignore the pain in his back, side and leg. Ahead of him there was a wide   
expanse of cement under the ramp. Or was there? He gave a half hysterical   
little giggle as he blinked away tears of pain to see two sections slide to   
the side to reveal a set of doors at the back, and space enough for the   
bike. Doug pulled his arms away, and ordered him to get off the bike.   
 "Wha..what?"   
 "Go on, move.. Go in there."   
 Ray climbed off the back of the bike and his leg wouldn't hold him. He   
almost fell, then Doug's arm was striking out to hold him up and he was   
kicking the stand into place and climbing off. Ray felt himself lifted then   
he was being carried at a run into that hidey hole. The doors opened   
revealing a lift that Doug deposited him in before he raced out and back to   
the bike climbing on.   
 Ray's shaking hand rose to the helmet fixing the view. He saw Doug give   
him a wave that was half salute, then that hand dropped to the key pad and   
the sections of fake wall slid back into place and the lift doors closed.   
He looked around the lift. There were no controls that he could see. The   
lift started to drop and he staggered up to his feet, hissing and cursing   
at the pain that emanated from his leg as he rose. He was forced to lean   
heavily on the side of the lift to stay up.   
 He raised a hand to touch the controls on the helmet and saw a staticy   
view of the bike tearing through the garage, and down a ramp, to slide in a   
tight spin left, then down another and then another. He saw Doug crash the   
bike through the boom gate at the entrance to the garage and take it into a   
tight one eighty spin and had a flash view of police car's flashing lights   
and a blockade to the right, and then ahead of Doug. He could just imagine   
the sound of it's engine roaring as he gunned the engine and looked for an   
escape route, then he saw it, a low wall along the exterior car park of the   
mall, a wall that was slanted at either end of the entry.   
 =The wall=   
 Had he spoken aloud, or had Doug seen it himself. A moment later the bike   
was speeding directly for it and onto it. Then the view broke up and the   
lift jerked to a halt. Ray fell with a grunt of pain and hit the side of   
the helmet changing the view from one of static to what was ahead of him as   
he pushed himself up and the doors opened.   
 Light's flickered outside the lift and he saw a long and possibly winding   
tunnel filled with pipes along the walls and roof, it was also filed with   
slimy moss, dripping water and sludge and he was sure it reeked to the   
heavens and glad for the helmet's air filter.   
 =Yeuch=   
 He pushed up the wall of the lift and limped out gritting his teeth   
against the pain in his leg. Every step he took was pure agony but he   
forced himself to move through that corridor, using the pipes that ran   
along the wall to keep himself up. More than once he almost slipped in the   
slime, or lost his hand hold and was grateful that he was wearing the   
gloves as more than one big fat rat and spider scuttled over pipes and his   
hand's.   
 After what seemed an eternity to Ray there was a proverbial and actual   
light at the end of the tunnel, a flood light, that revealed the existence   
of a side tunnel. Limping his way to it he looked down it to see a brand   
new tunnel minus the slimy pipes and moss, but not the rats, that scuttled   
up and down it.   
 He followed this new long and winding tunnel wondering if he'd reach the   
end of it before the pain took it's toll as he panted heavily, and   
staggered along using the wall for balance.   
 The tunnel dipped down and he found himself going deeper underground in a   
curving tunnel that became a straight one after a twenty meter curve, when   
he reached the end of that tunnel it was to enter another tunnel that took   
him up and made him whimper with pain at the stress on his leg that he   
didn't need.   
 The tunnel ended with a dead end, a steel pole with deep grooves on either   
side a few feet from the wall, and steel rungs set in the wall. He looked   
up and groaned deeply as he saw the tunnel over his head that seemed to go   
up forever.   
  "If you don't get yourself killed throwing off the pursuit, Dougie, I'm   
going to kill you myself."   
    
   *=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=* 

 Kowalski looked at the three Mountie's who prevented him from leading   
Fraser, who was cuffed to him at the wrist, out of the consulate.   
 "What do you think you're doing?"   
 Kowalski looked around at the sound of Thatcher's voice.   
 "I'm afraid Fraser's under arrest," he told her pulling out his warrant to   
show her.   
 She approached and snatched it out of his hand looking it over. Then she   
smirked.   
 "You are aware that this consulate is considered Canadian soil, Detective.   
If you want to arrest Fraser, you better come armed with an extradition   
warrant."   
 He gave a very faint smile, then Fraser spoiled his little victory over   
the federal bureaucrats who had used him to try and arrest the Mountie by   
telling Thatcher he didn't need or want her help.   
 Thatcher, Kowalski and the three Mounties in his path all did a double   
take. Then Thatcher's eyes raked over Fraser not missing a thing, from his   
sickly pallor, the deep bags under his eyes, and general gaunt appearance.   
She knew he'd hardly eaten a thing over the last week, seeming to exist on   
tea and the occasional dry biscuit.   
 "Fraser."   
 "All you are trying to do is forestall the inevitable as I have been   
trying to do by staying here for the last week."   
 She waved the warrant in his face.   
 "You're not guilty of the charge's they're trying to lay against you."   
 "Are you sure of that, Inspector," Kowalski asked.   
 Thatcher spun on him, her eyes blazing.   
 "Do you have *proof* of his innocence, that can disprove all the evidence   
to the contrary?" Kowalski asked.   
 "What evidence, some low life's cockamamie story about Fraser being.."   
 "Photographic evidence," Fraser and Kowalski said in perfect unison making   
her start.   
 "Video evidence, too."   
 "Supplied by who?"   
 "Someone with a grudge against the criminal Fraser has been colluding with   
obviously."   
 Thatcher looked at Fraser.   
 "I've seen some of the evidence. It doesn't prove anything other than the   
fact I am associated with him. But it proves.. another person we are both   
associated with is guilty of participating in a crime he committed."   
 "Vecchio."   
 With a sigh Fraser nodded.   
 "The photographic and video evidence this sleaze with a grudge against   
Knight gave to the Feds is very graphic."   
 "Pornographic is more like it," Fraser muttered under his breath.   
 "What was that," Thatcher demanded.   
 "I was just agreeing with him," he said.   
 "Exactly what are they saying they suspect Fraser of being involved in,   
based on this evidence?"   
 "It would seem they don't trust me with that information after a file   
containing some of the evidence ever so mysteriously vanished from Welsh's   
desk after he received it with orders to bring Fraser in...Right around the   
time Fraser decided to hole up here. And they noticed that it ever so   
mysteriously vanished after he told me to leave his office."   
 This time Thatcher gave a very faint smile as she saw Fraser give a faint   
nod at her raised eyebrow.   
 "He's right, in so much as none of the evidence they've been collecting   
courtesy of Mr Sleaze that we've seen seems to prove he's guilty of   
anything but having an association with Damon Knight. But then I was shut   
out of the loop, until they got sick of waiting for Fraser to come on out   
so they could arrest him."   
 "You don't have to go with him, Benton."   
 "It will go better for him if he comes with me now, instead of pissing   
them off by forcing them to go through all the rigmarole of getting an   
extradition order."   
    
   *=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=*   
    
 Every breath that was expelled from Ray's mouth was a sob of pure agony   
one as he dragged himself up the last few rungs, his arms and shoulder's   
ached along with his back and side, his injured leg was just one huge   
throbbing mass of agony and he couldn't even move it any more. All he could   
was haul himself up until he could get the other leg firm on a rung and   
reach up to repeat the whole process over and over again.   
 He gritted his teeth as his hand closed over the last rung and he dragged   
himself up. Forcing himself to ignore the pain that made him want to pass   
out he forced the injured limb onto a rung, then up and over the lip of the   
new tunnel he found himself dangling half in and out of. He clawed himself   
forward, inch by agonising until he lay gasping and panting on the cold   
cement floor to listen to the soft hiss from the air vents as he tried to   
find the strength to drag himself up or crawl through this new tunnel.   
 Something chilled his sweat soaked body in an instant and a shudder racked   
his body.   
 =Lizzie?=   
 The chill intensified to the point where it made his teeth chatter and he   
opened his eyes to find himself engulfed in a roiling cloud of gas.   
 =Ohg-d, what *now*=   
 =:You called, beloved?:=   
 =Lizzie! Lizzie, help me!=   
 =:Hmmm, well, if I ignore that little scream of help, I'll soon have you   
right where I want you, to chase around for eternity=   
 =Liiizzzeee!=   
 His body started tingling and a different kind of chill that he felt to   
the bone swept over him. He started thinking naughty thoughts and heard her   
give a little chuckle. Light's crackled, the view from his helmet camera   
started to break up and the gas around him swirled madly. The hissing noise   
he'd heard became a mechanical wheeze then the gas was dissipating.   
 With an effort he pushed up the visor and looked around to see the gas   
being sucked back into the vents it had poured out of. Then as the last   
wisps of gas were sucked away, there were multiple clanging noises. He   
looked down at himself to see his black leathers were now white with a   
light frosting of ice crystals.   
 =*Thank-you*=   
 With a little shimmer she appeared before him, going down on one knee,   
crossing her arms over the other.   
 =:Admit it, sometimes it pays to have a poltergeist on your side:=   
 =All right, I admit it. Now do you think you could levitate me to the end   
of this tunnel, I don't think I could move another inch, and I'm in serious   
danger of going into shock here.=   
 =:Use your telephone:=   
 =*???*=   
 =:Call that hussy who had her wicked way with you, you're in one of   
Gemini's tunnels.. She bears the Gemini pendant, the key:=   
 =Why didn't I think of that?=   
 With an effort, his hands and arms shaking, he pulled out the phone   
dropping it because he couldn't hold on to it. She waved her hand around   
and it rose from the floor to float before him. He stabbed at the speed   
dial and it floated close.   
 He could just make out the sound of a phone ringing, once, twice, three   
times, mid way through the fourth ring it was answered, by Sheba.   
 "Sheba - help me!" he croaked.   
 "Who.."   
 "Arm..an.."   
 "Armando! We thought the police had caught you. Where are you?"   
 "Tun..nels.. hurt..can't..go any..further."   
 "Describe where you are?"   
 Haltingly he described how he'd entered the tunnels through the lift in   
the mall, the slimy pipe laden tunnels, the twisting turning tunnels that   
had lead him to the one where his body had refused to go on. The gas that   
had almost finished him off.   
 "I know where you are now.. You should be a half frozen icicle by now   
after tripping the intruder response system like that."   
 "Muz.. be.. mal..func..tioning."   
 =With a little help=   
 =*giggle*=   
 =Drop it, now=   
 Lizzie let the phone clatter to the cement and Ray listened to Sheba   
calling out to him, loudly, over and over, then finally there was silence.   
 =:She's coming, Dear Heart=   
 Then she faded away.   
 =:Goodbye:=   
 =Wait!=   
 There was a faint shimmering around her but she remained vaguely   
indistinct.   
 =You never said that before. It was always Au revoir, or till we meet   
again.. I'm never going to see you again am I?=   
 =:No - I don't think so:=   
 =Why?=   
 =:One day.. You'll work it out:=   
 =Will you at least tell me why you remained even after you worked out I   
wasn't the man I looked like?=   
 =:You were terrified of me:=   
 =It's *very* disconcerting to have a ghost manifest in front of you and   
throw herself at you. Even if she is the sexist ghost to ever haunt this   
earth=   
 =:Ah the way to a woman's heart, flattery:=   
 =You call the way I used to run away shreiking, the ghost is after me,   
flattery?=   
 =:It was what you did after that. You came back.. Even though you were   
terrified you kept coming back, and put your desire to catch that killer   
ahead of your own fear and followed me even though you postively terrified.   
It takes a special kind of man to face terror that deep and forge on in   
spite of it:=   
 He snorted.   
 =I was a coward, I kept letting my terror get the better of me and 3 women   
died horribly because.... oohhh.. Now I get it.. It's because I was the   
first person you could communicate with, because I finally realised you   
were doing more than just popping up to give me a hard time, that you were   
trying to help me catch that killer.=   
 Like the Cheshire Cat's grin her teeth flashed.   
 =The day I walked back in and didn't run for my life when you appeared and   
beckoned me was the first time in decades that you were able to effectively   
communicate with someone.=   
 =:Yes, Dear Heart:=   
 =That's why you followed me after that, it wasn't because I looked like   
your man, it was because I was the first person in a long time who didn't   
turn tail and run away shrieking.=   
 =:Exactly:=   
 =I'm sure the only reason you actually manifested that way in front of me   
the first few times was because you thought I was your Sugar Daddy. I know   
you don't appear to me the way you appeared to others.=   
 =:chuckle:=   
 =After I got used to you being around, it was kind of fun, 'specially when   
you wanted to play poltergeist at just the right time to freak out   
Einstein, and what you did to that suspect.. *chuckle* I wished you'd been   
around when I ran up against Carver, that man would have cracked wide   
open.=   
 He felt her chill touch at her cheek.   
 =:I have to go.. but first.. be careful, beloved, the one who's actions   
brought you here is like the man who brought about my death:=   
 Then she was gone and other hands were touching him, turning him. The   
helmet was pulled away and he found himself looking up at Sheba as she   
pulled off a glove with her teeth and touched his face. The long chain she   
wore dangled before his eyes with its pendant swinging back and forth.   
 "S..Sheba."   
 She touched a finger to his lips.   
 "Hush, save your strength," she said then pulled the glove back on and   
began running her hands over him taking note of which places her touch made   
him wince.   
 He did more than wince when her hand ran over his injured leg. He gave a   
groan so deep it made her shudder and passed out. Shadow's moved over the   
walls and she stepped back and two men took her place.   
 "Gently now, and watch his leg."   
 As the two men moved to lift Ray there was a faint shimmer in the air   
around her and she shivered, running her hands over her arms as an icy   
chill settled over her.   
 "Hurry, I think the system is about to kick in again."   
 The chill dissipated slowly and she shuddered all over as the two men   
raised Ray and carried him away toward the open doorway out of there. She   
looked down at the floor then frowned and reached out to pick up his phone,   
and the twinkling jewel encrusted chocker with a ruby & emerald studded   
crucifix in its center that caught her eye.   
 =How beautiful   
 She looked at the phone and shut it off before it was slipped into her   
other pocket and followed after the men studying the choker. It was   
stunning, and if the jewels were genuine- and to her trained eyes they   
appeared to be - then it was worth a small fortune. She looked at the art   
deco clasp at the back and turned it over in her hands and her eyes widened   
when she saw the jeweller's mark there.   
 She knew her jewellery, and this piece had to be over 60 years old, that   
mark hadn't be used in all that time, but it was virtually untouched by   
age. Then she dragged it through her hand till she was looking at the back   
of the crucifix to see the jeweller's mark there too, under the exquisitely   
done engraving, untouched by the years.   
 -To my Angel, all my love, A. Langustini-   
 She tucked it away in her pocket wondering just who his Angel was,   
completely oblivious to the fact the angel in question was a woman who died   
sixty years past.   
    
  *=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=*=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=*=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=*   
  

  Intellectually Fraser knew what his interrogators were doing, but that   
 didn't stop it from working. He was so tired, all he wanted to do was drop   
 his head to the table top and sleep, but they never let up with their   
 questions, insinuations, accusations, flashing picture after picture at   
 him, each more graphic than the most.   
  Welsh walked in on the tail end of their session, and stood in a corner   
 watching them fire off question after question, accusation after accusation   
 and recognised the look on the Mountie's pale and drawn face. He was at   
 breaking point.   
  "Did it ever occur to you that when a man's stuck between a rock and a   
 hard place, he has to make hard choices."   
  Fraser's interrogators jumped. They'd heard him enter, seen him, but he'd   
 been so quiet ever since that they'd forgotten he was there.   
  "The only person with the power to make the mob back down is J'Fa - And   
 Damon Knight is the face of the J'Fa, even if Gemini is their leader. I   
 can't speak for Vecchio, who I know is involved with him, but I can speak   
 for Fraser. You can flash all the photos and play all the videos you want,   
 but all you have is exactly what he wants the world to see. What *looks*   
 like he's having a sexual affair with Fraser. I can tell you, it's not   
 happening. Because I followed him one day when I had word Knight was back   
 in town."   
  Fraser's eyes widened.   
  "I saw him put on a show for any and all interested parties. But that's   
 all it ever was, Fraser here wasn't willing to throw himself into the role,   
 and I saw Knight drag him into an alley to slam him into a wall and deliver 

 what I can only assume was a threat."   
  The investigator's looked at Fraser who was now turning a bright red.   
  "Sure he let Knight touch him up, *in public*, held hands, let him do a   
 little hugging and light necking, but he drew the line at anything else   
 happening."   
  A picture was pulled out of the collection, Welsh refused to look at it   
 for less than the few seconds it took for him to identify the two men in   
 it.   
  "That's Vecchio, not Knight, besides. I saw that tape you've got."   
  He moved to the table leaning on it, looking Fraser in the eye.   
  "You were dead drunk that night, weren't you?"   
  Fraser looked down and nodded.   
  "I don't.. remember very much at all.. apart from waking up in another   
 suite with a horrendous hang over and being extremely ill the next day."   
  "Did it happen before or after that incident I witnessed in the alley?"   
  "After."   
  "Tell us what happened, why you were there in the first place."   
  Fraser gave a shuddering sigh.   
  "Damon kept.. crossing the line.. And he threatened to withdraw his   
 protection if I didn't play the role according to his rules. The.. incident   
 at the hotel was Ray's attempt to.. Teach me to relax when.. being intimate   
 with a man, and.. involved the use of alcohol to make me relax."   
  A photo hit the table top in front of him and he looked away.   
  "It was very strong alcohol, and I drank it straight, from a 150ml glass.   
 I don't.. remember much of what happened after the third glass."   
  "What did you talk about, before you got so drunk you lost all your   
 inhibitions, Constable."   
  "I'm not really sure.. things started getting Fuzzy around the second   
 glass.. I remember him telling me that Damon had told me was ready to give   
 up.. and that I had to learn to relax or else."   
    
  ======*======   
    
  Ray came to his senses in a hospital bed, to find an armed uniformed cop   
 standing before the door of the private room he'd been transferred to. He   
 also discovered he was cuffed to the bed, and that there was a detective by   
 the bedside waiting for him to regain his faculties.   
  He couldn't believe his ears, as he was read his rights, and left with no   
 doubts that he - as Armando - was under arrest, and he was too weak to   
 resist, either physically or verbally, and just nodded dumbly when he was   
 asked if he understood.   
  "A guard will be posted outside your door, around the clock, if you try to   
 leave, the charge of attempting to escape lawful custody will be added to   
 those already against you. Do you understand?"   
  Ray nodded again.   
  "As soon as the Doctor reports that you are well enough to be transferred   
 to a prison hospital to continue your recovery, you will be, until they you   
 will be barred from visitations by anyone but your legal counsel if you   
 request one."   
    
  ======*======   
    
  The Doctor refused to release Ray from his care until his wounds had   
 healed and he was fit to be transferred, not to an infirmary, but a cell,   
 and the cell he was transferred to was not a prison cell, but a cell in a   
 station house.   
  His first visitor was Lieutenant Welsh.   
  "Relax Vecchio, you're in quarantine here, there are no other prisoners   
 here to hear what you have to say."   
  "What the hell is going on here?"   
  "They're saying you crossed over."   
  "What?!"   
  "They've got a file this thick full of what they call proof of your   
 defection."   
  "I don't believe this.."   
  "Believe it."   
  "Have you seen what they've got on me?"   
  "Some of it. Photo's.. video's.."   
  "The sort that make it look like I've crossed over."   
  "You'll see it for yourself, I demanded that you be given a chance to see   
 and hear their evidence and refute it, if that's possible."   
  "Thanks, sir."   
  "Though how you can refute the most damning evidence of all is beyond me."   
  "What evidence would that be?"   
  "Video and audio evidence.. Edited to within an inch of it's life, but   
 still admissible evidence.. You made an enemy who stalked you, and wire   
 taped every place you made contact with various people regularly. The most   
 damning tape of all was apparently made after your enemy learned you'd   
 booked a suite at the Queen's Arm Hotel.. and managed to plant a camera and   
 wire tape the suite before you arrived."   
  Ray felt positively ill then with a heart pounding suddenness a horrific   
 realisation struck Ray.   
  "Ohmigod, Fraser, you've got to tell Fraser about this."   
  "It's too late for that."   
  =Oh god, please, tell me he's been arrested and not killed.=   
  "Wether or not any charges are laid against him for consorting with a   
 known crime lord depend on you and wether or not your story is the same as   
 his."   
  =Thanks=   
  "Damon Knight?"   
  Welsh nodded.   
  "The big lunk head thinks he's in love with me. I was taking advantage of   
 it - I didn't start reassociating with him till I found out about the   
 contract on Fraser's head and realised I could use his crush on me to   
 protect Fraser without blowing my cover."   
  "I believe you.. They may not. One of the suits is out to prove you're a   
 defector - and he's got no love for you or Fraser, and he'd love to take   
 you both down."   
  "Well he's going to ruin everything, Damon is a *deep* cover man, he's a   
 cop like me who.."   
  "You mean Douglas Montray.."   
  "YES, you remember him.. That's Damon, they faked his death and.."   
  Welsh shook his head.   
  "I was starting to think that might be the case after I saw him.. But your   
 replacement discovered the truth."   
  "What do you mean?"   
  "Douglas's mother gave birth to *triplets*.. A girl, and a pair of   
 identical Siamese twin boys. Douglas and Damon... Douglas died in prison."   
  "Damon's dead."   
  "Oh, so you knew about Damon?"   
  "Dougie told me about his brother when I was in hospital.. He was killed   
 in Italy."   
  "Kowlaski proved otherwise. Douglas died in prison, the man you think is   
 Douglas is really Damon, taking advantage of the fact you never knew he   
 escaped the explosion that was meant to kill him and his wife Sheba on   
 their wedding night."   
  Ray crossed the cell and dropped down on the bunk staring at Welsh. Welsh   
 told him the story Kowlaski had told him about the Montray Twins.   
    
  ======*======   
    
  Doug aka Damon, started as he activated the security system in his hidden   
 office to see Fraser approaching. He rose to his feet as the door opened   
 and Fraser entered.   
  "Benton, what are you..?"   
  "Ray told me how to reach your office."   
  "Did he send you?"   
  "No."   
  "Do you know where..?"   
  "He's been arrested."   
  "Just who did they arrest, Armando or Ray?"   
  "It was Ray they were after," Fraser told him, before informing him of the   
 belief held by various people that Ray had crossed over and the existence   
 of the tapes and photos which made things look very bad for Ray indeed.   
  When Doug finished cursing in every language he was fluent in, and few he   
 was fluent only in the curse and which way to the men's room in he   
 instructed Fraser to turn his back, and wait. Fraser obeyed and heard a   
 click, followed by a sliding noise and the sound of Doug walking away. He   
 was tempted to turn, but resisted the temptation till he heard the sliding   
 noise again, followed by another click. Turning he saw an empty room and no   
 sign of where Doug.   
  Glancing over the desk he wondered what object opened the secret panel   
 that lead to Gemini's office. Realising that he might have to wait for some   
 time, he moved to the couch and sat.   
  "Sitting there staring into space won't get you anywhere, son."   
  Fraser looked up at his father's wraith and was glad it hadn't shown up   
 during any of his.. intimate encounters with Ray or Doug.   
  "There is nothing I can do until Douglas returns."   
  "What about - that?" Fraser Senior asked, pointing to the computer that   
 sat on the desk, its screen glowing."   
  =Of Course, why didn't I think of it=   
  Jumping up, Fraser rushed to the desk and sank down into the chair and   
 studied the screen. It was displaying a Microsoft window's configuration   
 screen and Fraser cracked his knuckles before reaching for the mouse and   
 working his way through the various levels before he found Ray's name in   
 the file manager. Curiosity got the better of him and he clicked on the   
 directory and began opening files, scanning them.   
  They were mainly reports, gleaned from various data sources, and readily   
 available. He was about to go searching again, when the last file he opened   
 surprised him - It was set out diary style, with the first date and entry   
 time listed being late evening of the day he'd been arrested. Each entry   
 contained Doug's on personal views on Ray, along with the occasional   
 transcript of the main points of a conversation that had pass between them,   
 laid out on the screen in black and white. Reading it was like reading a   
 bad erotic novel, most of Doug's personal views of Ray seemed to be either   
 sexual or romantic.   
  But that wasn't what kept Fraser reading, it was the dry notes that   
 peppered the smut. Commentary like, "The Mountie arrived at six, and   
 remained till eight, he drank orange juice, water and chamomile tea, and   
 ate a Pizza, thin crust, hold the Olives. He was shocked when he found the   
 entry concerning Doug and Ray's conversation after the Queen's Arm's   
 incident, and kept reading, trying to learn more.   
  Reaching the end of that file, Fraser learned that Ray had been injured   
 while he and Doug had been escaping custody. There was a note, noting that   
 Gemini had rescued him and taken him to the hospital where he received   
 treatment. He'd *vanished* after Gemini left the hospital to track down   
 Doug.   
  Fraser knew Ray's vanishment was courtesy of the police who'd arrested him   
 and returned to the file manager and began searching it again.   
  A subdirectory's name almost leaped out at him, and he clicked on it, to   
 find another collection of Subdirectories and there it was, the name of the   
 assassin he'd been warned about. Clicking on the folder, Fraser found 42   
 files. Picking one at random he opened the file and found it contained a   
 very detailed report on a murder committed by the assassin, and details   
 about the victim. Time, place, method of death, autopsy report details -   
 reason for execution, it was all there, including the details of whom had   
 contracted the assassin to carry out the hit.   
  =Ray would be drooling if he could see this.=   
  Closing the file, Fraser returned to the directory and opened the last   
 file. It contained information that sent a chill down Fraser's spine and   
 sent him searching for a file created on the date mentioned. Opening that   
 file, he found a detailed report of Alessandro's arrival with Ray, and   
 everything that had happened to the Hit man after Ray departed to leave   
 Alessandro at the women's less than tender mercy's.   
  So immersed was he in the files graphic details that he didn't register   
 the click and slide noise, even though it came twice. He didn't register   
 anything till he felt the touch of a gun barrel at his temple. Looking up   
 he was confronted with the sight of a very controlled Doug, who's eyes   
 blazed with fury.   
  "I know who set up Ray," he blurted, then taking a huge risk without a   
 second thought, he closed the file and reopened the one that had preceded   
 it turning the screen for Doug to view it.   
  Doug glanced at it, then slowly lowered the pistol before uncocking it and   
 returning it to its well hidden holster under his coat.   
  "We know."   
  "I only opened files in two directories. Alessandro's, and Ray's."   
  "And not your own?"   
  "I didn't notice a directory with my name on it."   
  "It's listed under Red Coat."   
  "Ah."   
  "Which files did you open in Ray's?"   
  Fraser opened a new file, and began typing as he talked.   
  "Enough to know you've been keeping tabs on him for a very long time \- and   
 to know you have strong feelings for him."   
  "That is no secret to Ray. But Ray has no love for me, affection, perhaps,   
 friendship - yes, trust within limits, but no love."   
  "I wouldn't say that."   
  "If he's capable of falling in love with another man, that man would be   
 you. He's already demonstrated the various signs.. Prostituting himself to   
 get you the level of protection you needed to save your life, risking his   
 own life on more than one occasion to contact you - and point blank   
 threatening me with violence if I went beyond the level of public intimacy   
 needed to convince people we were sexually involved. Something that in   
 hindsight he realised could have been a very big mistake, as it showed that   
 he didn't trust me, and that your welfare meant more than mine did."   
  "And you don't..care?"   
  "You don't want to know what I think, and I would thank you to leave, now   
 - and keep this in mind, if I hear one word about any of the information   
 you gleaned from delving into my records leaking out - I will know who   
 leaked it and he will live to regret it."   
  Fraser stood.   
  "I would never do anything to hurt Ray, and any action I take that hurts   
 you - would hurt him."   
  "I'm glad we understand each other."   
    
    
     *=-=-=-=-=-=*======*======*=-=-=-=-=-=*   
    
  The End.   
  Continued in Gemini Rising VI: Conflict of Duty   
  Standard disclaimers apply.   
  Copyright February 24, 1998 Red Skye.   
  

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